1. Technical Field
This invention relates in general to telecommunications and, more particularly, to service level specification (SLS) monitoring for throughput requirements.
2. Description of the Related Art
A Differentiated Service (DiffServ) network provides differentiated classes of service for Internet traffic, support various types of applications, and specific business requirements, as opposed to common Internet access, where there are no guarantees of specific performance. A service level specification (SLS) defines the parameters of services required from a Differentiated Service network. The SLS could specify, for example, maximum delays, delay variations and packet losses.
Monitoring actual conditions in a network involves a large number of measurement activities. One of the conditions that may be specified in an SLS is a throughput requirement. One-way throughput is generally defined as the number of user-packets successfully transferred in one direction over a unit of time. Currently, there is no standard for throughput measurement for SLS monitoring.
Therefore, a need has arisen for an efficient method and apparatus for throughput measurement for SLS monitoring in a differentiated service network.